Rivulet

Title: Rivulet
Author: Jamie Magee
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating: 5/5
Cover: 10/10

"Unfathomable forces have always contested Genevieve Indiana Falcon, known as Indie. The curse of her cold touch entraps her just as the grief ignited in her past torments her. Yet, her mysterious ability to dream while awake saturates her in the belief that she was not always anguished. There is hope that one day a true peace in her soul can be found.

Foolishly, Indie assumes she has contained her life in an odd balance, and she cherishes the visions she sees of the enigmatic boy that held her in a lost time, but can never reach. She grieves for a life she fears she'll never possess, and that grief is a weapon she uses against her aunt who stands between her and her inheritance.

Weeks away from her twenty-first birthday, the date where she would assume control over her family legacy, a night terror robs Indie of the balance she was clinging to. Like the dream she had before she lost her family, it predicts a fatal catastrophe on the horizon. The fight between life and death, good and evil, began the moment her thundering heart awoke her.

Everything changed after that dream. The one thing that keeps her curse at bay is stolen, and then the enigmatic boy arrives in the flesh. Face to face with her fiery born-again lover Indie realizes that the only way she can prevent the tragedy before her is to surrender everything she was, is, and could be.

Can she bend the laws of nature and fight the improbability that fire and ice could ever be one? As far as Indie is concerned, there is not a myth, spoken fate, or curse that is stronger than her stubborn desire to have it all ... including him. "

**

There was so much that could have gone wrong with Rivulet. The nature of the story in itself is very confusing (though I realise that it might have been more so for me, because this was my introduction to the Web of Hearts and Souls books. This is the first from Indie's POV though, so I figure I didn't entirely mess up the sequence this time!), and that could have easily made it too convoluted and difficult for the reader to follow.

Luckily, Indie was a superb narrator (though she does take 'unreliable' to the next level), and kept me hooked throughout. I wanted - nay, needed - to know how her story would end. Her connection to Sebastian kept me wanting to know more - was what she was seeing just an echo, repressed memories or a past life? And what had happened to the sinfully hot and amazing Sebastian?

But most of all, I loved Mason and Gavin. I loved that they had this amazing, lighthearted relationship with Indie, and set up a little "club", to quote the woman herself, to talk about how to get over her. It was funny, and kept the balance between the whole good/evil battle, keeping the book light when it threatened to start getting too philosophical and heavy.

Also, that plot twist! Holy mother of plot twists! I mean, I knew who the "wolf among the sheep" was, but that? Did not see that one coming.

I'm really curious to see where the characters are headed next - there's some awesome room for good stuff to come, and I can't wait to see more of Sebby :)